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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The right wing nut-jobs are full of Hot Air today as they attempt their latest attack on John Kerry.

Talk about taking things out of context -- Michelle Malkin claims that it was "Unmistakable what he meant," referring to John Kerry's statement to students a Pasadena City College yesterday during a rally for Phil Angelides. You, "Don't need a PhD in linguistics to understand it clearly," Malkin said. Well, I was there Michelle, and clearly you and the rest of the wing-nuts have just twisted this with your own brand of perversion.

Not only did the wing-nuts take what Kerry said out of context, but Malkin reported today that "Seth Liebsohn of Bill Bennett's radio show took a swipe today on this blogger when he said on air: "Even Democrats think Kerry meant what we say he meant and salute this crude." Malkin noted the Liebson pointed "to this liberal blogger entry" (from my post here last night on the rally):

"Talk about speaking the stark truth to students who want more out of life. The education system in California is a mess, especially in L.A. County. Each day I pick my daughter up at school I see the recruiters leaving, smiling because they have snagged another kid who’s trapped by the system and see’s no future other than enlisting. It shouldn’t be like this. A 50% drop out rate is unacceptable. What is the bottom line for these kids, a job at McDonald’s or Iraq. Kudo’s to Kerry for delivering a wake up call to the young voters at the rally."

The focus of the rally was education and Kerry gave the students are stark dose of reality when he noted that because the education system here is such a mess, because the drop-out rate is nearly 50%, and because the cost of higher education keeps rising, some students are faced often with struggling through the system to go to a higher education, or those who can't end up joining the military and heading for Iraq. There truth is there's few choices for the students the NCLB leaves behind every year.

I speak from first hand experience about what the choices are for urban kids in cities like L.A. As a single mother with a kid in public school, I've watched the school system degenerate and yes, I see the recruiters lurking around my daughter's school daily waiting for the next kid who figures out he can't make the grade. I believe our kids deserve a better chance, I know that many are getting screwed by the cuts to public education, NCLB and the rising costs of higher education. I talk to kids from my daughter's school and they know the future looks grim under the Republican reign that could care less about the little people. And I also know that John Kerry believes that it's right to put on the uniform of the United States and serve our country, but he also believes that our kids deserve a first rate education.

John Kerry issued a statement this morning to in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts who are desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”

The bottom-line is that John Kerry is under attack right now from the usual gang of Republican draft dodgers and sniping armchair warriors who never served this country, but love to attack and distort all those who have – these are the same people who attacked Jack Murtha and Max Cleland -- and they will keep attacking until we say -- NO MORE.

Here’s the real deal -- yesterday, John Kerry made a tough and starkly honest joke about Bush, and admittedly it came out a little mangled. I was standing in the room and it was clear where Kerry was going with his statement -- the importance of a great education because if you don't you'll be stuck in the war in Iraq -- Bush's stupid war that we all know is based on lies.

So, the right wing has kicked their slime slinging mud machine into high gear and they are trying to distort Kerry's comments and disgracefully allege that John Kerry was criticizing the troops. That's right -- disgracefully. He was talking about the troops, he was talking about the importance of getting a good education and how easy it is to get screwed by our messed up education system. Let's make it clear, Kerry has spoken about the importance of a good education time and time again. He's said in the past, "I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq." His point is ALWAYS to wake kids up to how important a good education is -- he does want to see our kids fighting in a war we don't belong in.

If anyone thinks that a veteran would make fun of the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the one idiot who get us stuck in a war in Iraq, they’re crazy -- absolutely freakin' nuts! It's all about Bush, not the troops.

This is a test of whether Democrats know how to fight back and it’s a big test. We can't afford to slink off and retreat. We must stand up to the likes of Tony Snow, Bill Bennett, Karl Rove, and the right wing cabal. Kerry's fighting back and the Dem Daily has his back -- and the entire netroots should too. We can blog about how bad the education system is and yet when someone speaks the truth to power about the reality, we let it get twisted by the cabal. I don't think so.

Kerry is pushing back hard on this fight. Don't let the cabal get away with this.